Cryogenics Council celebrates 50 years

UK: The British Cryogenics Council (BCC) has celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special event at Oxford Town Hall.

The inaugural meeting of the British Cryogenics Council took place on May 24, 1967, at the Royal Society. The first meeting was addressed by British medical physicist Dr Kurt Mendelssohn at Oxford University’s Clarendon Laboratory. The 50th anniversary saw Professor Chris Grovenor continue the link with the University by reviewing Mendelssohn’s 1967 speech on the future of cryogenics with a talk on the new Centre for Applied Superconductivity which he leads. Professor Grovenor is Professor of Materials at Oxford University’s Department of Materials.

Dr Beth Evans, chairman of the British Cryogenics Council welcomed the guests for the 50th anniversary event, with Councillor Jean Fooks, Oxford Alumna and Lord Mayor of Oxford extending that welcome.

The minute book from the 1967 event shows that Dr A J Barnard from the Institute of Refrigeration attended as a member of the board, and Professor G G Haselden, who would later become a president of the IoR, chaired part of the meeting. 

The current IoR president Steve Gill continued the connection by attending this year’s celebration and said that he was delighted that the IoR has remained a sponsor of the BCC for the 50 years since its inauguration.   

Quoting directly from the Cryogenics Impact Report 2015, Steve said “Cryogenic systems find application in fields as diverse as food freezing, manufacturing and engineering, medicine and life sciences, satellite applications, astronomy, space exploration, transport and storage of liquefied natural gas, energy (traditional and alternative), avionics, defence and security, and in superconductivity. 

“I learned today, the perhaps unsurprising fact, that cryogenics can be found in approximately 17% of the broad sectors representing the UK economy. More specifically, it is estimated that the total (direct and indirect) GVA (Gross Value Added) contribution of cryogenics-related activities to the UK economy is around £324m per year.  In addition, it is estimated that cryogenics-related economic activities could contribute between £1.6bn and £3.3bn to the UK economy in the next 10 years.” 

Registration of interest in sponsoring or exhibiting at the forthcoming ICEC-ICMC Conference was launched during the celebration evening and it was revealed that European Cryogenics Day 2018 will be in Oxford on September 3 next year. Further details here. 

SIRACH will be hosting an event: Applications for Cryogenic Cooling, on the October 12 at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). RAL is home to many of the UK’s most advanced research facilities and supports work in a range of areas including space science and astronomy, particle physics, nanotechnology and developing new materials. The SIRACH event will focus on applications for cryogenic cooling and delegates will hear presentations on leading edge technologies. Registration and further details from SIRACH.